BUDAPEST, 20 Feb. The ruling faction of the Hungarian parliament, Fidesz, introduced the The national assembly proposed to ratify Sweden's membership in NATO at the first meeting of the spring session on February 26, faction leader Mate Kocsis said.
“I ask Mr. Speaker that at the first meeting of the spring parliamentary session of 2024 on February 26, the agenda includes a final vote on the bill on the accession of the Kingdom of Sweden to the North Atlantic Alliance,” says the text of the document published by Kocsis on Facebook* (an extremist social network banned in the Russian Federation ).
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday that Budapest and Stockholm have “taken important steps” to resolve differences and everything is heading towards the fact that at the beginning of the spring session of the Hungarian parliament, which starts on February 26, deputies will approve the Swedish application to NATO.
Orbán invited his Swedish counterpart to Hungary at the end of January to discuss Sweden’s admission to NATO. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó expressed hope that the Swedish prime minister’s visit to the country will help “build trust” between the Hungarian parliament and the Swedish authorities and will lead to the ratification of Sweden’s application to NATO. According to him, it would be more correct if the Swedish Prime Minister visited Hungary before ratification, if only because he visited Turkey.
Orban previously said that the country's government supports the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, but members of the Hungarian parliament are not enthusiastic about ratifying it, since the authorities of these countries are spreading “shameless lies” about Hungary.
Finland and Sweden, against the background of events in Ukraine in May 2022, submitted applications to join the alliance. Finland became the 31st NATO member on April 4, 2023. Sweden's application has not yet received Hungarian approval.
*The activities of Meta (social networks Facebook and Instagram) are prohibited in Russia as extremist.